Reversible slide feed



June 11, 1957 P. DE LA MOTTE 2,795,413

REVERSIBLE SLIDE FEED Filed D80. 13, 1954 INVENTOR.

PIERRE do Ia MOTTE v ATTORNEY United States Patent REVERSIBLE SLIDE FEED Pierre De La Motte, Nutley, N. 1., assignor to U. S. Tool JCompany, Inc., Ampere, N. 1., a corporation of New ersey Application December 13, 1954, Serial No. 474,642

1 Claim. (Cl. 271-25) The invention herein disclosed relates to slide feeds and the main purpose of the invention is to provide a slide feed which can be operated to feed stock in either direction.

Particularly it is a purpose of the invention to provide such mechanism in a simple, practical form which can be substituted in place of one-way slide feeds presently in use.

These objects and others are attained by novel features of construction, combination and relation of parts, all as set forth in detail hereinafter.

The drawing accompanying and forming part of this specification illustrates a practical commercial embodiment of the invention, but structure may be modified and changed as regards the immediate illustration, all within the true intent and broad scope of the invention as hereinafter defined and claimed.

Fig. 1 in the drawing is a broken, part sectional side elevation of a present embodiment of the reversible slide feed mounted and connected for operation on an ordinary punch press;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged broken sectional view taken through the feed block and showing the right-hand feed blade lowered and the left-hand feed blade raised for eifecting feed of stock in the right-hand direction;

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the left-hand feed blade lowered and the right-hand blade raised for effecting feed of stock in the left-hand direction.

In Fig. 1 a feed block is indicated at 5 mounted to slide on guide rods 6 carried by a frame 7 fixed to bolster 8 of a press or other machine.

This feed block is reciprocated in the illustration from the cam or crankshaft 9 of the machine by means of a crank 10 connected by link 11 with the upper arm of a rocker 12, the latter having a lower arm 13 connected by pivot link 14 with a grip lever 15 pivoted to oscillate in the feed block.

Figs. 2 and 3 show this gripper lever to be of novel design and construction in that instead of the usual single feed blade, it carries two feed blades 16 and 17 at opposite sides of the center of oscillation 18 and which can be selectively positioned for use depending on the direction of feed desired.

Fig. 2 shows the right-hand feed blade lowered by adjustment of screw 19 and the left-hand feed blade 17 raised and retracted by spring 20 through adjustment of screw 21.

With this setting of the parts the right-hand feed blade will be rocked downwardly to grip the stock 22 against bottom plate 23 with pressure of link 14 in the direction of the arrow, such movement being occasioned by lifting of the rocker 12, Fig. 1, in anti-clockwise direction.

In this right-handed feed movement the left-hand feed blade 17 will be lifted further clear of the stock and the backstop screw 24 for this operation will be positioned to limit the backward or left-hand rocking movement of gripper lever 15 so that blade 17 will remain clear of the stock during the left-hand recovery stroke of the feed block.

For reverse conditions the feed blades are adjusted as in Fig. 3, with the left-hand blade 17 lowered to grip the stock on left-hand movement of the block and the right-hand feed blade 16 raised to remain clear of the stock on oscillating movement of the gripper lever 15 in both directions. In this instance the right-hand stop screw 25 is adjusted to stop the right-hand rocking movement of the gripper before the raised feed blade 16 can possibly reach the stock.

The usual front and back stops for the feed block may be provided as indicated at 26, Fig. 1, and other more or less conventional features may be employed.

Without materially or objectionably increasing size or number of parts, the invention makes it possible to effect feed of stock in either direction and all from the same side of the machine, the side where the power is taken off to operate the slide feed.

All that is necessary to shift from feed in one direction to feed in the opposite direction is to raise one feed blade to inactive position and to lower the other feed blade into position for engagement with the stock.

In Figs. 2 and 3 the pivotal connection between link 14 and the upper end of the rocking gripper lever is indicated at 27.

What is claimed is:

Slide feed for feeding stock in either of two directions, or in both directions, comprising the combination of a horizontally reciprocating slide block having a bottom plate, an upright gripper lever fulcrumed near "its lower end on said slide block above said bottom plate, an actuating member pivotally connected with the upper end of said lever having movement for rocking said lever in opposite directions and for reciprocating the slide block in opposite directions, stock feed blades slidably mounted on opposite sides of said lever at opposite sides of said fulcrum center and slidably adjustable toward and away from said bottom plate, means at the upper end of said upright gripper lever for independently adjusting said blades in respect to said bottom plate and whereby one or the other, or both, may be rendered effective or ineffective to grip stock on the bottom plate in the reciprocation of the slide block in opposite directions, and stop screws on opposite ends of the slide block in line with opposite sides of the gripper lever and adjustable independently of each other for determining rocking movement of the gripper lever in opposite directions whereby to determine the stroke of the gripper lever in opposite directions independently of adjustment of the blades in respect to the bottom plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 780,451 Strehlau Jan. 17, 1905 1,327,881 Roth Ian. 13, 1920 1,358,051 Baerbalck Nov. 9, 1920 2,278,921 Fischer Apr. 7, 1942 2,397,833 Borton Apr. 2, 1946 

